Rocket Remnants: ween

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Monday, 5 July 2010

Killer Ween

To finish up my brief foray into the wonderful world of Ween, I've saved the best till last.

In 2008 Ween released a live album capturing a concert from 1992, entitled At The Cat's Cradle.
They did this in response to the previous live release Paintin' The Town Brown, put out by Elektra Records during Ween's association with the label.
An album apparently Ween were never happy with; not truly capturing the essence of their live shows during their early days - Elektra deciding to release songs mainly performed with a band touched up with a large dose of production, rather than raw recordings made by Ween as a duo, which is how the majority of their early shows were played; right up to Chocolate & Cheese in fact.

At The Cat's Cradle is still available, and I do recommend you go out and buy it, as it's a great recording of a classic Ween 1992 set.

What is harder to find now is a copy including the free limited edition DVD that came with the initial release - although it can still be tracked down with a well aimed search; something I highly recommend - I mean, it's not of the greatest visual quality, and some of the camera work is a little baffling, but it's great to see Ween perform early songs as a duo, often to very small audiences, and often in venues that have the look about them of a caravan site social club.
But that doesn't seem to deter or limit their performance at all; they give it all they've got; go completely nuts, playing as if their very lives depend upon it.

In the sleeve notes, guitarist Dean describes this period in Ween's career as really running out of steam.
The duo format determined and regulated by the tight frame and structure of the Dat player became boring to them, and they moved into the more conventional band format allowing for improvisation and more spontaneity.
Totally understandable of course, especially from a guitar player of Dean's ability, but then again, some of their early songs are just so perfect: 'Marble Tulip Juicy Tree' is a quite wonderful and brilliant song.
I haven't got a fucking clue what it's about, but it's simply amazing.

All the tracks on the DVD are different, or at least different versions of those on the CD, and the quality of sound is very good.
My recording level is a little high - I had to rip this from my Playstation: it's a long story... - but there's no distortion; just mind your lugs if you're using cans.

Ween - Live 1991 - 1992 (various locations), (2008)

Captain Fantasy
You Fucked Up
Tick
Boing
Listen to the Music (studio out-take)
Don't Get 2 Close 2 My Fantasy
Cover It With Gas and Set It On Fire
Seconds
Marble Tulip Juicy Tree
Gladiola Heartbreaker
Common Bitch
The Goin' Gets Tough From the Getgo
Reggaejunkiejew
Old Queen Cole
Shalom Absalom (studio out-take)
Don't Laugh I Love You
Mountain Dew

Excellent DVD audio rip to mp3s @320kbs
Go back to the future with Ween here

Friday, 2 July 2010

Teenie Weeny

Two stoned teenagers recording daft numbers in a bedroom?
Yep, that just about sums up Ween's second cassette only release.

But there's already something there: seeds are being sown.
Genre subversion, psyche and folk (both of a very twisted variety), humour, satire, and chinks of the sublime that tentatively reveal where Ween were going to go; all in extreme lo-fi; enriching it no end; creating an intimacy that's genuinely authentic: no pretense; just natural and raw creativity; and a big old dose of fun.

So enjoy this piece of embryonic Ween, and hey, if anyone has a copy of Ween's first release The Crucial Squeegie Lip and they would like to share it or knows of a link to it (not bit torrent) I'd really appreciate a holla.

Meanwhile Ween go on and on; and long may they reign; and long may they commission artwork such as this recent tasty piece by Justin Hampton.
Sweet!

Ween - Axis Bold As Boognish (1987)

I'm Killing It (Kill Everything)
Tweet Tweet
On the Beach
I Like You
Bumblebee
Emily
David the Negro
The Iron Whore
Sitting on my Ass (Wanton Nougat)
Smoke in my Brain
Anne
Aqua-Ween
She Said, She Said
The Journey Into Dinh
Gene's Lament (Tree Love Theme)
One Love For Boognish

Cassette rip @320kbs
Get down with the Boognish here

Tuesday, 29 June 2010

Ween A Peel

Ween produced two sessions for John Peel's BBC radio show.
The first in 92 the second a year later.

There is a bootleg version of these tracks that apparently exists but this collection comes from my own cassette versions of the sessions, including a couple of Ween related Peelisms.

The recording is top rate; complete tracks with no sibilance.
Obviously captured while on tour - both sessions were recorded at Maida Vale - Ween are tight and hot; moving from the absurd to psyche to metal to folk to a kind of variety style, all within eight tracks; disregarding genre barriers as if they were purely abstract.

Which of course they are.
I just wish more of the contemporary scene would take that on board.

Ween - Peel Session: 20 Feb, 1992

Pork Roll Egg and Cheese
Nan
Captain Fantasy (includes Peel's reaction)
Don't Get Too Close To My Fantasy

Ween - Peel Session: 25 Apr, 1993

What Deaner Was Talking About
Vallejo
Take Me Away
Buckingham Green (includes Peel's outro)

Excellent cassette rip @320kbs
Peel here

Sunday, 27 June 2010

Rude Boys

Apologies for my absence - just in case anyone is interested - time wasted, I'm afraid: merely wasted.

Anyhow, to get things rolling again I thought I'd post something with some real balls.

This album could be considered Ween's Smile, so to speak; and there are various versions as to how it came about, and eventually, unofficially, released.

Leaked on to the net by Dean Ween, perhaps; ironically it is now quite hard to track down, so I figured I'd make it available again

This isn't really the best place to start if you are a Ween virgin - my previous Ween post would probably be a better way in, preparing you for a good run up to this little collection.

Even for a Ween album, the profanity rating here is incredibly high - the titles kind of give that away - and as Exile on Main St. was essentially Keef's album, this is most certainly Deaner's album.

Always the most profane of the Weeners, on this album there's no holding back; not that it debases the quality of the music; this, as with all of Ween's material, is superbly executed, including some wicked twisted funk numbers, concluding with a manic-Prince-like version of 'Monique the Freak'.

Several of the tracks collected here do appear in different forms on the officially released Shinola Vol. 1; but in my opinion this is a far more coherent and superior collection, making for a much better album.
More akin to God Ween Satan than any of their later releases.
And for me, that makes this one of their best.

Ween - Craters of the Sac (1999)

All That's Gold Will Turn to Brown
The Pawns of War
Big Fat Fuck
Put the Coke on My Dick
Making Love in the Gravy
How High Can You Fly?
The Stallion, pt 5
Sucking Blood - From the Devil's Dick
Monique the Freak

Excellent cassette rip @320kbs
Embrace the Sac here

Monday, 23 February 2009

Ween We Were Young

If you're not familiar with the music of Ween, this recording makes for a great way to get acquainted.
If you are already aware of the band, then you will soon recognise this recording as being a wonderful showcase for the Weeners: highlighting their incredible range of songs and performance skills.

Aaron Freeman and Mickey Melchiondo morphed into Gene Ween and Dean Ween sometime in the mid-eighties, it didn't take long before they were putting out their own cassette releases, laying down what was soon to become familiar territory; songs about dwarfs, weasels, the great Boognish (don't ask), parasitic afflictions, diseases and their favourite foods, captured in a variety of styles and genres, ranging form lo-fi punk to avant garde musings to metal and thrash to country and western - but always with an idiosyncratic twist that made all of their songs, no matter what the genre, into distinctive Ween songs.
Shit, they're almost a genre unto themselves!

This recording, which has been released as a DVD (I'm offering here the bonus CD version, with a few extras), captured a performance in Chicago back in 2003. The sound quality is excellent, and the set list pretty much works as a greatest hits package - not that they had any real hits, but I'm sure you get my drift.

Many of the tracks here are performed with both Dean and Gene playing guitars, and a wonderful sound is created through the juxtaposition of the Les Paul and the Strat; and although the two guitar setup is a familiar one, Ween ain't Wishbone Ash, and are far more interested in creating textures than out noodling one another.
'Roses are Free' is probably the best example of this, with the blended guitar licks spiralling into an adrenaline filled crescendo that will raise the spirits of the most stubborn of miserablists.

It is Dean though who in reality is the true guitar player of the band; and boy can he spank that plank!
'I'll Be Your Johnny on the Spot' features a stunning smoking solo worthy of any ax hero you can mention; and he may not be Robert Fripp, but he sure can rip it up and make that Fender snarl.

There are a few moments of calm during this recording, and donning acoustic guitars, Gene and Dean take their music down to places others would find inaccessable.
Just check out the unique and absurd beauty of 'Mutilated Lips':

Mutilated lips
Give a kiss on the wrist
Of the worm like tips
Of tentacles expanding in my mind
I'm fine accepting only fresh brine
You can get another drop of this, if you wish

As to the disease and sickness inspired songs; well, you gotta write about something, right, and perhaps a way of dealing with such shit as HIV is to write a punk anthem to it.
Dunno, it works for me.

'Spiral Meningitis' could well be autobiographical, but what it does represent is an authentic truth; it may well be disturbing, but then severe illness is (other illnesses dealt with in Ween's oeuvre include 'Mononucleosis' (glandular fever), Lime's disease (an infection caused by parasitic ticks: 'Tick'), mental disorders ('Zoloft'), Obesity ('Fat Lenny') and actually being dead ('Push the Little Daisies').

He likes to lick his brain in silence.

I've included the encore with the original recording, featuring two excellent metal songs: 'You Fucked Up' and the hyperbolic 'Doctor Rock', both performed immaculately, sending the Chicago audience into a total frenzy.

The brakes are suddenly applied allowing Dean to express himself during the wonderfully sublime 'She Fucks Me'; building up to a mighty climax with the crowd pleaser 'Booze Me Up and Get Me High'.

This DVD may well still be available (although the bonus CD may not accompany it - but hey, you can get that here), so you could go out and buy it; but if your appetite is moistened, check out the stunning albums God Ween Satan and my personal favourite: The Pod.

You won't be disappointed.

Ween Live in Chicago, November 2003.